The West Brom, the country's ninth biggest building society, has spearheaded what has now become a national drive to bring stamp duty in line with house price inflation since May last year.

The duty, effectively a tax on property deals, has not been changed since 1993, since when prices have rocketed by 160 per cent.

Stamp duty kicks in at one per cent on any sale of more than £60,000, rises to three per cent on deals worth between £250,001 and £500,000, above which it goes to four per cent.

If the levy threshold had kept pace with inflation, it would now apply only to homes sold for £156,900 or more.

Government's failure to act means that virtually every house sale now incurs stamp duty and it is especially hard on first-time buyers.

Since the 1993-94 tax year the "take" from stamp duty has increased more than ninefold from £465 million a year to an estimated £4.3 billion in the current fiscal year.

Mr Messenger, who was joined in Downing Street yesterday by other building society bosses, said the West Brom began its Raise the Roof campaign "because we were upset for local people".

"First-time buyers in the West Midlands are now paying an average asking price of £117,000 so the £60,000 threshold is absolutely absurd.

"You can only conclude that the Chancellor wants to penalise people."

Mr Messenger said the lack of first-time buyers - they now account for only 12 per cent of the housing market compared with long-term average of 46 per cent - was now affecting liquidity higher up the chain.

"It would be better to put the burden on people better able to pay than carry on penalising first-time buyers, many of whom are people essential to the community such as nurses and teachers," he added.

Campaign supporter and former president of the Warwick- based National Association of Estate Agents, Trevor Kentwill, said stamp duty was now equivalent to 1p on the base rate of income tax.

"Before Labour the average first time buyer paid no stamp duty at all - now they pay around £1,500.

"Raising the threshold in line with house price inflation would take 50 per cent of first-time buyers out of the tax completely."

Similar demands were being made by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, which issued a budget submission urging the Chancellor to reduce the burden of stamp duty. The CML also called on the Government to commit to reforming "this lazy and unfair tax".

Michael Coogan, CML director-general, said: "The Government says it wants to help first-time buyers, and the most obvious way to do this is to reduce the burden of stamp duty on them."